I'm a member of Ohioans for Concealed Carry, and read the forum often. One thing that comes up quite a bit is women's range experiences. They seem to go like this:
Woman who has never touched a gun ever goes to a range with a guy.
Guy doesn't tell her how to stand so that she is stable. She stands relaxed without knowing what's coming.
Guy hands her a large-caliber handgun, and has her shoot it.
She stumbles backward and he laughs.
Then she tries again, and brass goes down her plunging neckline, burning things best left unburnt.
She goes home and tells all her friends that this shooting thing stinks.
Compound that with all the youtube videos of girls getting hit in the face by firearms recoiling, and girls falling down, now you have a lot of women who perceive shooting akin to torture, fearing the laughter of their torturers.
Enter the LadySeed.
Women who have never held a firearm before may need a bit of nurturing to be comfortable. A team full of women have a great potential to provide that.
There's a certain amount of timidity in women when they are new to mechanical devices. The pace at a LadySeed is conducive to taking the shyness out.
Women shooters are not that common, so the fact that there is a staff of instructors who know what they are doing, and are women is rather a breath of fresh air. I think it gives female attendees hope that they, too, can do this.
The differences in our anatomy make for some interesting adaptations, which guys will never have to worry about. Women instructors are more likely than a man to notice where our anatomy is interfering with our shooting, and how to correct it. I saw this at my first LadySeed. One lady had been to lots of AS shoots, but couldn't crack 200. A lady instructor showed her a different way to go into prone, and bingo, 202. It helped that there didn't need to be any self-consciousness about one's build, either.
The LadySeeds have given my daughters confidence to go to full Appleseeds. I have lots of daughters, and have taken 3 to LadySeeds, two for their first ever Appleseed at age 10. They connected with the instructors well, the pace suited a young learner, and the games broke things up to keep their interest. Hearing history of women in the Revolution was memorable for them. Ask them which story they liked best, and they will say, "The one about the woman with the crazy red hair and crossed eyes."
My girls gained confidence at the LadySeed to want to go to regular Appleseeds. I think at least two of them are "hooked" which is better than I can say for their brothers.
I believe LadySeeds are a comfortable, confidence building experience that introduces how much fun shooting can be, and how women can make an impact in their world, even with crazy red hair and crossed eyes. I hope to go to many, many more of them, wearing different colors of ballcap with RWVA embroidered on them, and happily sporting my purple Rifleman patch, which was earned shooting next to two of my daughters.
I've heard it said so many times: "It's always about the shooter." The stereotypical guy-who-takes-a-woman-to-the-range that you just described doesn't understand that. He is looking for a way to feel better about himself. So he climbs on someone else's back to elevate himself. He's got a small brain that isn't getting bigger and he just turned off one woman to the shooting sports who had the courage to try it out. Trust betrayed.
I hope that EVERYBODY, not just women, gets the Ladyseed experience you described at any and every shoot they attend whether it's for a select group or open to all comers. As Appleseed Instructors, IITs and Blue Hats that should be our goal.
C ya,
brian
Quote from: brianheeter on August 25, 2012, 10:28:19 AM
I've heard it said so many times: "It's always about the shooter." The stereotypical guy-who-takes-a-woman-to-the-range that you just described doesn't understand that. He is looking for a way to feel better about himself. So he climbs on someone else's back to elevate himself. He's got a small brain that isn't getting bigger and he just turned off one woman to the shooting sports who had the courage to try it out. Trust betrayed.
I hope that EVERYBODY, not just women, gets the Ladyseed experience you described at any and every shoot they attend whether it's for a select group or open to all comers. As Appleseed Instructors, IITs and Blue Hats that should be our goal.
C ya,
brian
O0
YHJ
Ratchet posed a site called "Girls Guide to Guns" The owner in the about section is wearing an orange hat and is holding a Red Coat. I hope that they come aboard and help us with promotions. My one daughter is really into AS and my oldest likes it but....
Hopefully she comes around.
At the shoot in New Philadelphia, OH we had a home school mom that had never shot before score a 207.